


Butchered Soldier

by schrijverr



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Gen, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, Hurt Tony Stark, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Super Soldier Serum, Team as Family, Tony Feels, Tony Stark Has Issues, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-19
Updated: 2019-05-19
Packaged: 2020-03-08 03:22:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18886156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/schrijverr/pseuds/schrijverr
Summary: In Howards obsession he wanted to recreate to Super Soldier Serum, he tested it on Tony who got a whole bunch of hurt with the benifits that came with the Serum. He tries to hide it because he hates it, but one day the team finds out.They are there for him





	Butchered Soldier

**Author's Note:**

> I'm posting all the fics from my tumblr, which is also @schrijverr
> 
> Note this is based of this prompt from @tonystarkismyprompt on tumblr: 
> 
> "Howard did a lot more than shame Tony for not being as good as Captain America. In fact, he was so obsessed with the idea that he had developed a (rather problematic) version of the super serum and injected Tony with it. Tony hates it. So he's become almost perfect at hiding its effect... Almost being the keyword there."

Howard did a lot more than shame Tony for not being as good as Captain America. In fact, he was so obsessed with the idea that he developed a (rather problematic) version of the super serum and injected Tony with it. Tony hates it. So he’s become almost perfect at hiding its effects… Almost being the key word there.

Tony hated being what he was. He hated being a a failed copy of someone he could never be. He hated everything that came with it, no mind the benefits. Sure, he was a tad too strong for a normal person, but all his muscled ached all the time, he had a better stamina then most without working for it, but that didn’t mean his lungs wouldn’t do weird spasms when he breathed in too deep, and he could go on. To everything remotely positive there was a downside and everything ached, he could never be better or even half as good as the great Captain America. It seemed like nothing hurt the golden boy.

In short Tony hated that his dad had injected him with a problematic version of the serum to test it on him and he wanted to forget it as much as he could. That of course meant hiding it from everyone in his life. He was quite good at it if he was being honest. The only person he ever told was JARVIS, both AI and butler. This was something he would take to the grave.

At least that was the plan, but then they found Cap in the ice and he came face to face with the man that made his life hell. He looked as they tried to de-freeze him with a stoic face. He wanted to scream, kick, hit and yell, but he didn’t. He just looked and then he left.  
He was hoping to only see his face again in pictures as he had done before, but aliens just had to try to invade the earth. They fought, won and before Tony knew it he had a bunch of new house mates, one of them being Steve Rodgers himself. It honestly wasn’t as bad as Tony had thought. For the first two weeks they just kinda ignored one another and after that it was greetings and team bonding. Everything was going fine, or as fine as it got with Tony. That changed on a mission.

They were fighting some weird-ass aliens, again. Honestly, Tony thought, earth bad guys could get more creative, because fighting monsters and aliens alike was getting kinda boring, although he had to give it to these guys, they were smarter than they looked.  
He was shooting them down left and right and he didn’t even notice himself getting separated from the group until it was too late. One of the fuckers had noticed a plate getting lose and when Tony was far away enough he ripped it of leaving Tonys chest exposed and indecently his back. Tony quickly took off, but without his whole armor is was hard to keep steady and his power source wasn’t connected. His suit was failing. 

He spoke through his com: “Can anybody come back me up? They separated me and ruined my suit. I’m exposed.”  
Caps voice rang back: “I’m on my way, why didn’t you say so sooner?”  
“Sorry, I was a little busy with fighting hordes of monsters.” Tony replied.

He was hiding in an alley as the monsters passed. He had seen Cap take them down and he was pretty sure he could do it as well without his suit, but Cap was on his way, no need to out himself for nothing. At least that was the plan. He was following the aliens so that Cap could take them out when he arrived. But then there were civilians. A group of three poorly hiding in a diner. The aliens had noticed them and were advancing on them, guns ready to take them out. 

 

Tony checked the map again, Cap would arrive too late. He quickly went over his options, he could take out these aliens and save the civilians, but he would out himself in the process or he could let them die. No one would have to know he could have done something and three wasn’t that big a number. No, he thought, they’re worth it, they have families and homes they deserve to return to. He got out of his hiding space and charged.  
With a few good punches he took out the first, which got the attention of the the second and third who he took out with a few kicks and punches. The aliens noticed their ranks diminishing and turned to the source, Tony. 

They abandoned the civilians and all attacked him. Tony was surrounded. He was punching and kicking, but he couldn’t do it all alone. There were just too many. He sighed and thought, well at least no one will be able to question me about it. Then he went down, covering his head to shield himself from the blows coming in.

Then, just when he was about to give up completely the aliens disbanded, no not disbanded. Ripped away. Tony looked up and saw Steve bashing in the last skull with his shield. When it was done he wiped his blood of his face and turned to Tony, his face was one big question mark. Tony felt like he should be more focused on the fact that Steve knew, but with the adrenaline wearing off all the pain set in. All his muscled screamed an ached and he buckled to the ground. Spots were dancing before his eyes as he struggled to breath. His wound were closing, but the feeling of every cell regrowing itself was becoming unbearable. It all became too much and the spots turned into complete darkness as he fell unconscious.

~

Tony woke up in a bed in the Towers med bay. He blinked slowly and looked around, his team was spread out in the room. Some were sleeping, but Banner was talking to Steve who was nodding along. When they noticed he had woken up they quickly turned their heads towards him. Tonys eyes met Steve's and he groaned as he let his head fall back into his pillow. His muscled still ached a bit, but it was more bearable now, he opened his eyes again and saw all his teammates hanging over his bed. 

Bruce asked: “How are you feeling? You scared us.”  
Tony smiled, Bruce would forever be kind and worried. “I’m just peachy.” he answered.  
Steve sighed and said: “You care to explain?”  
Tony pulled his ‘I-have-no-idea-what-you’re-talking-about’ face and hoped he could fool Steve. It didn’t work. Tony sighed and said: “What am I supposed to explain? My armor broke, sorry, I’ll improve it. It broke, but there were people in danger. I took a risk and it paid of, I got lucky, but it was stupid and dangerous. Is that what you want to hear?”  
He crossed his arms and sat upright. 

Steve looked confused for a second, then he got mad. “You know that’s a lie. You are completely fine, that’s impossible.”  
“Wow, thanks for the confidence.”  
“That’s not what I mean, look at Clint,” Tony looked and saw that he had broken his arm, “He tried punching one of the aliens and it broke his arm. Normal humans, as you claim to be, can’t get through their skin, so again. Explain.” Steve was really mad now. 

Tony looked at the ground dejected. With a small voice he whispered: “It wasn’t my fault or choice.”  
“What wasn’t?” Clint asked.  
“Being me.” Tony answered.  
“That’s very cryptic, Tony.” Natasha said.  
“Just explain. We won’t hurt you, you know that, right? Just tell me why your DNA shows up abnormal.” Bruce said.  
Tony looked into his honest, open eyes, and caved. “It’s all Howards fault.”  
“What!” Steve yelled, “That’s a lie, Howards was normal. I know that, he couldn’t have passed on these genes to you.”  
Tony shrunk into himself a bit and said: “He didn’t pass them on genetically.”

Bruces and Natashas brows furrowed and Bruce beckoned Tony to go on. Tony took a deep breath and said: “He always looked up to you, his greatest creation.”  
He aimed the comment at Steve sounding a bit bitter. Steves eyes widened. He leaned forward to listened closely. “What do you mean?” he asked, “He didn’t do that alone.”  
Tony shrugged and said: “If you had asked him, he would have told he might as well have. He always told stories about you, what you had done, how brave you were, how I should be more like you. For the biggest part of my childhood I hated you. I couldn’t grasp why other kids liked you, but when I got older I got it. You’re a hero, Mister United States.”  
“I’m sorry Tony you shouldn’t have to go through that.” Steve said.  
He put a hand on Tonys shoulder, but Tony shook it off. “It’s OK,” he said, “Besides it wasn’t even the worst part.”

“How could this get worse, man of iron?” Thor asked, he had seen child neglect and abuse first handed with Loki and knew how it could affect people.  
“Well, I haven’t explained why I’m abnormal, now have I.” Tony practically spat the word abnormal.  
“I’ll tell you now, Howard wanted to recreate his greatest creation to make it completely his own, but government wouldn't fund another human experiment, so he used the closest source available, me.” 

The team gasped. They had guessed that Howard hadn’t been as kind of a father as the media had portrayed, but this was on a whole other level. The dam had broken inside of Tony after over thirty years of bottling it up. He continued: “He wouldn’t even test on animals, I would just get what he cooked up. The first few hurt, they hurt so bad. It was terrible,” Tony was full on crying now,” and then, then he finally found one that worked. I had it, I had everything Steve had, but it came with a price he never had to pay.”  
His shoulders shook as the sobs wrecked through his body. Natasha was the first to hug him and the others soon followed. They formed a pile of comfort on their friends bed and waited for Tony to gather his wits and calm down. 

After a while Tony broke the silence with: “Wow, kinda too mushy don’t you think.” while smiling a fake smile.  
Everyone recognized his humor as coping-mechanism, but no one called him out on it. They smiled back at him and backed off a bed, never getting too far away from him. Bruce said: “When you’re feeling up to it I would like you to go through a list of Steves powers and name all you have and their side-effects. It doesn’t have to be now, but tell me when you’re ready.”  
Tony replied: “No, no, it’s OK. Pull up the list, might as well get it over with now.”

Bruce raised an eyebrow at him, but complied. “Lets just do this, I list a power you say yes or no, if it’s yes say what the side-effect is.”  
Tony nodded and Bruce read out the first one: “Super strength.”  
“Yes, after I use it my muscles cramp up, get immobile and hurt for a long time.”  
“High stamina.”  
“Yes, my lungs feel like ice cubes after I use them and it hurts, especially since my arc reactor is sensitive to cold.”  
“Faster healing.”  
“Yes, but the catch is that I physically feel every cell regrow and every cell is like a sting from a bullet ant. I know, I tested.”  
“Not being able to get drunk due to metabolism.”  
“Yes,” that got some surprised looks, “and here it is that I am always hungry, you could make me eat 500 plates stacked with food and I’ll still feel like I’m starving.”  
“Slower aging?”  
Tony nodded, “It feels like my skin is pulled so very tight around all my muscles. It doesn’t necessarily hurt, but it’s just a constant source of irritation.”  
With every symptom there seeped more sadness into the teams eyes and with every downside Steves head just hung lower. He was the reason this was happening, he was the reason Tony was suffering, and he hated himself for it.  
“Finally, better sight.”  
“Yep,” Tony popped the p, “it makes my eyes hurt, so you know, sunglasses and all that jazz. So, we done?”

Bruce nodded speechlessly and put away the notes he made. The rest of the team were also looking at Tony wordlessly, they had never noticed the amount of pain he was in. Tony noticed and said: “Don’t go kicking yourself, I made sure you didn’t notice.”  
“Yeah,” Steve said, “but we should have.”  
Tony looked confused as the rest of his team nodded. “Cap’s right.” Natasha said, “you’re our teammate and friend, even family, we should’ve known you were in pain and we should’ve tried to help.”

Tears shot up in Tonys eyes and he said: “Come on, I promised myself twenty years ago I would never cry. I can’t cry two times in one day!”  
He chuckled a watery chuckle and wiped his eyes clean. Then Clint yelled: “You can’t escape us!” as he charged to the bed and jumped up for a hug.  
The others laughed or smiled and soon joined in to wrap Tony in a blanket of love again. Tony closed his eyes as he let his teammates hug him, no not teammates, family. His heart swelled at the term, he finally had a family that loved him.


End file.
